Industrial environments include automobile manufacturing factories, food processing plants, and microprocessor fabrication facilities. The typical industrial environment includes various machines, such as pumps, motors, and robots. These machines continually produce data that indicates the current status of the machines, such as the machine's pressure, temperature, or speed.
The typical industrial environment also includes a Human-Machine Interface (HMI). The HMI receives and processes the status data from the machines to generate various graphical displays. The graphical displays indicate the current and historical status of the machines. For example, an HMI graphical display might indicate the pressure of a pump, the speed of a motor, or the output of a robot. The HMI may also control the machines. For example, the HMI might turn on a pump, speed-up a motor, or stop a robot.
The HMI may allow a user to remotely access a graphical display. The user operates a communication device to retrieve a graphical display from the HMI over a communication network. There are a vast number of potential HMI displays, communication networks, and communication devices. It is nearly impossible for the user to design an HMI graphical display that is suitable for each specific combination of display, device, and network.